The past tense of the verb "to lead" (as in, leading, as distinct from following) is "led". It's a perfectly good word. It's not like that abomination "read", which, in print, could mean the present tense (pronounced "reed") or the past tense (pronounded "redd"), wherein you have to figure out the tense from the context. No..."led" is a nice, clean, straightforward kind of word—simple, unambiguous, and unmistakable in its meaning....

I tend to get hyperfocused on my work...often to the exclusion of all else. Thus, while I was aware of the Tohoku earthquake and resultant tsunami when they occurred in 2011, March, I didn't actively seek out more information about them at that time. It usually requires an effort to keep myself from being bombarded by the distractions they call "news", and that was no exception.

Besides, "news" reports that are concurrent with the events they report are notorious...

"Spootrid voompt" is a noise I just heard in my head, and so it seemed like as good a subject to blog about as any other. I mean, considering the amount of mostly incomprehensible noise that people make in such blitheringly idiotic subjects like politics, I figure that it's at least a bit more honest to say things like "spootrid voompt", and just drop the pretense that it actually means something, or that I actually know what I'm talking about when I say it. I certainly can't...